stiles_s

Hey guys,

I reinstalled my crossbars now that I'm using a roof box. One mystery, though (well, actually two)
1) there's a rubber bumper in the slot on the roof rails. looks like it's a stopper to keep the rails from going too far front or back. Can someone who hasn't messed w/their crossbars tell me where the rubber bumpers are?
2) Roughly where are the crossbars installed? There are what look like positioning "divots" in the inside of the tracks on the roof rails. I'm guessing that you align the front edge of the cross-bar mounts with these divots. Anybody know?

Thanks all. I should have just left them on there in the first place

Scott

RCsGX

I did a quick look and didn't see any dimples or rubber stops? I read the owners manual and it said something about rubber stops so it won't damage the moonroof. I'll take a closer look tomorrow if someone doesn't chime in before. In the mean time maybe this will help out. The previous owner was an older lady so I can only assume she didn't mess w/ the bars.


EDIT:
Since you've seen the huge pic I removed it and added a img thumb now. If you need to see it large again just click on the pic below.

stiles_s

Thanks for the reply!

Looks like your front bar is a bit farther forward than I've got mine set right now. The dimples are tough to see. You need the right light. It looks like someone took a sharp hold punch and gave it a good whack. They're inside the slot that the rails ride in. My guess is you may be able to see them just in front of your rear rail mounts.

The rubber bumper is also inside the slot. Based on parts diagrams from Sewell, it looks like it goes behind the rear bar in the slot. If you don't mind, see if you see a ~2" long rubber bumper in the slot either behind the rear bar or in front of the front one.

Thanks again!

Scott.

RCsGX

The bars were covering the dimples. I still don't see any rubber stops?

I moved the front and rear bars into the middle and there were no rubber stops anywhere within the rails? The only thing that resembled a stop of any kind is in red but it's not really soft and it's part of the bar slides so I don't think that's what you mean?





The front dimples are approximately 1 3/4" back


The rear dimples are approximately 10" back



Front
2 1/8"



Rear
2 5/8"

stiles_s

Great pics. Yes, those are the dimples I was talking about. My guess is that's where they set the bars from the factory (front edge of crossbar mounts aligned to dimples). But, they're designed to be moved so I don't think it's a big deal at all.

The bumper can be seen (barely) here:
http://lexus.sewellparts.com/oem-cat...X470-2007.html
Look for the part numbered 63719 on the blowup image. I just read the owners manual, and you're right. It says "to prevent damage to the moon roof, do not remove the cross rail stoppers." Based on that, I'm guessing that they must be designed to stop the front-most crossbar from sliding all the way forward on the railing. Perhaps the combination of that and a heavy load could result in torqueing the roof & damaging the moonroof?

Rather than take everything apart again, I think I'm going to remove the bumpers (right now they're @ the rear, behind the rear bars) and just avoid sliding the front bar any further forward than the alignment dimples.

Thanks for geeking out w/me on crossbar placement

RCsGX

I see them on sewells site. I don't get what the purpose of those rubber stops are? The manual says "Do not remove the cross rail stoppers, or the moon roof may be damaged when it is tilted."

Even w/ my front bar pushed all the way forward on the rails, they're no where near the moonroof. The slide part on the rails are not long enough for the bar to get anywhere near the moonroof let alone make contact with it when it's tilted?


I found a couple of threads in the RX forums and they just took them off. They asked Lexus what they were for and never got an answer. They thought either it was there for shipping purposes or to decrease wind noise? Don't know if either is true but I can't see Leuxs putting them there without a purpose but their reasoning in the manual for putting the stoppers there makes no sense whatsoever.